Wotapuri-Katarqalai language

Wotapuri-Katarqalai
Wotapuri-Katarqalai
Native to	Afghanistan
Region	Watapur District
Era	last attested 1983, 3 speakers (2023)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Dardic Kohistani Wotapuri-Katarqalai; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Wotapuri; Katarqalai;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	wsv
Glottolog	wota1240
ELP	Wotapuri-Katarqalai
	Wotapuri-Katarqalai is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Wotapuri-Katarqalai is an Indo-Aryan language documented to have been spoken in Afghanistan. It is unknown if the language still has active speakers, or is extinct.^[2]^[3] The most recent documentation of its use was published in 1983, when it was proposed that the language was in use in Katar-qala [Wikidata] and unlikely to be extinct in Wotapur [nl].^[1] In September 2023, there were just 3 senior male speakers (1 in Katar-qala and 2 in Quro) living in the valley reported to Sviatoslav Kaverin who was conducting field research there.

Phonology

Below is set out the phonology of the Wotapuri-Katarqalai language.^[4]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Mid	e eː	ə	o oː
Open		a aː

Consonants

		Labial	Coronal	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɳ
Stop	Plain	p	t	ʈ		k	q
	Aspirated	pʰ [f]	tʰ	ʈʰ		kʰ
	Voiced	b	d	ɖ		ɡ
Affricate	Plain		ts	tʂ	tʃ
	Aspirated		tsʰ	tʂʰ	tʃʰ
	Voiced		(dz)		dʒ
Fricative	Plain		s	ʂ	ʃ	x		h
Fricative	Voiced		z
Lateral	Plain		l
Lateral	Fricative		ɬ ~ l̥
Rhotic			r	ɽ
Semivowel					j	w

References

^ ^a ^b Ėdelʹman, Dzhoĭ Iosifovna (1983). The Dardic and Nuristani Languages. "Nauka" Publishing House, Central Department of Oriental Literature, 1983.
^ Owens, Jonathan (2007). "Endangered Languages of the Middle East". In Matthias Brenzinger (ed.). Language Diversity Endangered. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton. p. 265. doi:10.1515/9783110197129.263. Two of the languages on the above list are probably extinct, namely Tirahi, and Wot (Wotapuri-Katarqalai). Of the latter we can witness how the process of extinction has moved on inexorably in the course of the twentieth century. In the 1940s Morgenstierne reported that Wot was spoken in two villages in the Katar valley, one at Wotapuri at the confluence of the Pech river with the streams coming from the valley, one further up the valley in Katarqalai. 15 years later Budruss (1960) visited both villages, found no speakers of the language in the lower village, Pashto having completely replaced it, and in the upper one only a few passive speakers who remember having spoken the language in their earlier years.
^ Hakala, Walter (2012). "Locating 'Pashto' in Afghanistan: A Survey of Secondary Sources". In Harold Schiffman (ed.). Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. p. 78. doi:10.1163/9789004217652_004. Aside from the often insurmountable difficulty of organizing linguistic expeditions into these areas, Fussman notes how quickly the Dardic and Kafir languages of Afghanistan have been overwhelmed by the outside world, such that within a few years of Morgenstierne's expedition, Tirahi and Wotapuri, for example, had become dead languages (Fussman 1972: 4).
^ Edelman, D. I. (1983). The Dardic and Nuristani Languages. Moscow: (Institut vostokovedenii︠a︡ (Akademii︠a︡ nauk SSSR). p. 139.

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[:0-1] Ėdelʹman, Dzhoĭ Iosifovna (1983). The Dardic and Nuristani Languages. "Nauka" Publishing House, Central Department of Oriental Literature, 1983.

[2] Owens, Jonathan (2007). "Endangered Languages of the Middle East". In Matthias Brenzinger (ed.). Language Diversity Endangered. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton. p. 265. doi:10.1515/9783110197129.263. Two of the languages on the above list are probably extinct, namely Tirahi, and Wot (Wotapuri-Katarqalai). Of the latter we can witness how the process of extinction has moved on inexorably in the course of the twentieth century. In the 1940s Morgenstierne reported that Wot was spoken in two villages in the Katar valley, one at Wotapuri at the confluence of the Pech river with the streams coming from the valley, one further up the valley in Katarqalai. 15 years later Budruss (1960) visited both villages, found no speakers of the language in the lower village, Pashto having completely replaced it, and in the upper one only a few passive speakers who remember having spoken the language in their earlier years.

[3] Hakala, Walter (2012). "Locating 'Pashto' in Afghanistan: A Survey of Secondary Sources". In Harold Schiffman (ed.). Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. p. 78. doi:10.1163/9789004217652_004. Aside from the often insurmountable difficulty of organizing linguistic expeditions into these areas, Fussman notes how quickly the Dardic and Kafir languages of Afghanistan have been overwhelmed by the outside world, such that within a few years of Morgenstierne's expedition, Tirahi and Wotapuri, for example, had become dead languages (Fussman 1972: 4).

[4] Edelman, D. I. (1983). The Dardic and Nuristani Languages. Moscow: (Institut vostokovedenii︠a︡ (Akademii︠a︡ nauk SSSR). p. 139.

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